Slave disk "missing" in Windows

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kinglyam
  • Start date Start date
K

Kinglyam

I just rebuilt my computer and installed a new HD. As is typical, I moved my
old HD (Hitachi 120GB) over to the new machine and set it as slave. Both HDs
are IDE. However, after installing XP Home, this disk does not show up in
Windows Explorer.

I was able to pull my information off of it using a data recovery tool, but
chkdsk and fdisk don't know the disk exists. The partition is definitely
there, as I can see it in the Disk Manager. The DM says that the disk is
healthy.

What is going on here? Is there any way to recover the disk without using
the Disk Manager to delete the partition? I'd like to salvage the data on
there if possible, as my data recovery software damaged a few files in the
process. However, I will kill the partition if necessary to get my other HD
back.
 
May be a red herring but in TweakUi look at My Computer, Drives:

Download TweakUI, one of the MS powertoys, from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Kinglyam wrote:
> I just rebuilt my computer and installed a new HD. As is typical, I
> moved my old HD (Hitachi 120GB) over to the new machine and set it as
> slave. Both HDs are IDE. However, after installing XP Home, this
> disk does not show up in Windows Explorer.
>
> I was able to pull my information off of it using a data recovery
> tool, but chkdsk and fdisk don't know the disk exists. The partition
> is definitely there, as I can see it in the Disk Manager. The DM
> says that the disk is healthy.
>
> What is going on here? Is there any way to recover the disk without
> using the Disk Manager to delete the partition? I'd like to salvage
> the data on there if possible, as my data recovery software damaged a
> few files in the process. However, I will kill the partition if
> necessary to get my other HD back.
 
Could be a question of current versus previous Users' ownership of the
volume and contents in XP. Try the procedure for taking over ownership of
files and folders.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421/en-us

"Kinglyam" <Kinglyam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D071C03E-06B7-43E8-AD38-5122AFB988FF@microsoft.com...
>I just rebuilt my computer and installed a new HD. As is typical, I moved
>my
> old HD (Hitachi 120GB) over to the new machine and set it as slave. Both
> HDs
> are IDE. However, after installing XP Home, this disk does not show up in
> Windows Explorer.
>
> I was able to pull my information off of it using a data recovery tool,
> but
> chkdsk and fdisk don't know the disk exists. The partition is definitely
> there, as I can see it in the Disk Manager. The DM says that the disk is
> healthy.
>
> What is going on here? Is there any way to recover the disk without using
> the Disk Manager to delete the partition? I'd like to salvage the data on
> there if possible, as my data recovery software damaged a few files in the
> process. However, I will kill the partition if necessary to get my other
> HD
> back.
 
"Kinglyam" <Kinglyam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D071C03E-06B7-43E8-AD38-5122AFB988FF@microsoft.com...
>I just rebuilt my computer and installed a new HD. As is typical, I moved
>my
> old HD (Hitachi 120GB) over to the new machine and set it as slave. Both
> HDs
> are IDE. However, after installing XP Home, this disk does not show up in
> Windows Explorer.
>
> I was able to pull my information off of it using a data recovery tool,
> but
> chkdsk and fdisk don't know the disk exists. The partition is definitely
> there, as I can see it in the Disk Manager. The DM says that the disk is
> healthy.
>
> What is going on here? Is there any way to recover the disk without using
> the Disk Manager to delete the partition? I'd like to salvage the data on
> there if possible, as my data recovery software damaged a few files in the
> process. However, I will kill the partition if necessary to get my other
> HD
> back.


Kinglyam:
First of all, notwithstanding the problem you're encountering with the 120
GB Hitachi secondary HDD - we'll assume there's no problem with your system
booting to a Desktop and functioning without any problems. That's right,
isn't it?

We're also assuming your 120 GB Hitachi is non-defective; it was working
just fine in your old machine and you have no reason to think there's any
problem with it, right?

You say that the drive is detected in Disk Management (what you called "Disk
Manager"). Is a drive letter assigned to that HDD in DM? If there wasn't,
were you able to assign a drive letter to it? Does it show the correct disk
capacity and the correct partitioning information re that drive.

What do you mean when you say "I will kill the partition if necessary to get
my other HD back." What partition? Are you referring to multi-partitions on
that secondary HDD? What "other HD" are you talking about? Are you referring
to your boot HDD - the new HDD? But that's working just fine, isn't it? Or
am I completely misunderstanding your problem?

Anyway...

You're sure you've properly connected/configured (jumpered) your HDDs?
They're securely connected and you've no reason to believe there might be a
problem with their data (ribbon) cable(s)?
Anna
 
Gerry: No joy with TweakUi. It has a red question mark beside the C:Drive.

RalfG: No luck there, either. It's not that I can see the drive but can't
access it. The drive letter doesn't even show up anywhere but in the Disk
Management program.

Anna: I'm sure the HD is physically ok, as are the cables. Like I said, I
accessed the drive using data recovery software and copied all the files
over, so there is a good data connection and no hardware issues. SMART and
Disk Management both say the drive is A-ok. I am pretty sure the jumpers are
set correctly, because when I boot up, the motherboard BIOS recognizes the
old disk as a slave. I have experimented with changing the jumpers to make
the old disk the master, and the BIOS did recognize it as the master, but it
wouldn't boot from that disk.

When I loaded Windows onto my new computer with my new HD as the boot disk,
it asked me if I wanted to load onto the unpartitioned new disk, or the
already-partitioned old disk. I loaded it onto the new disk. When it was
done, my DVD-RAM was assigned drive D:, and my new HD/boot drive was assigned
E: I currently have no C: drive.

When I say I will kill the partition, I mean I will use Disk Management to
delete the partition on the old HD that does not show up in Windows Explorer.
Then I will use it to (hopefully) repartition the drive, under the theory
that the problem is with the partition.

However, I just looked more closely at Disk Management. While it sees the
partition, I noticed that it does not, in fact, have a drive letter assigned
to the partition. I can do nothing but delete the partition from there.
That makes me wonder if I can even repartition it after I delete the existing
one.
 

> "Kinglyam" <Kinglyam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:D071C03E-06B7-43E8-AD38-5122AFB988FF@microsoft.com...
>>I just rebuilt my computer and installed a new HD. As is typical, I moved
>>my old HD (Hitachi 120GB) over to the new machine and set it as slave.
>>Both >> HDs
>> are IDE. However, after installing XP Home, this disk does not show up
>> in
>> Windows Explorer.
>>
>> I was able to pull my information off of it using a data recovery tool,
>> but chkdsk and fdisk don't know the disk exists. The partition is
>> definitely
>> there, as I can see it in the Disk Manager. The DM says that the disk is
>> healthy.
>>
>> What is going on here? Is there any way to recover the disk without using
>> the Disk Manager to delete the partition? I'd like to salvage the data
>> on
>> there if possible, as my data recovery software damaged a few files in
>> the
>> process. However, I will kill the partition if necessary to get my other
>> HD
>> back.


"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message
news:%23SJEYKP2HHA.140@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Kinglyam:
> First of all, notwithstanding the problem you're encountering with the 120
> GB Hitachi secondary HDD - we'll assume there's no problem with your
> system > booting to a Desktop and functioning without any problems. That's
> right, isn't it?
>
> We're also assuming your 120 GB Hitachi is non-defective; it was working
> just fine in your old machine and you have no reason to think there's any
> problem with it, right?
>
> You say that the drive is detected in Disk Management (what you called
> "Disk Manager"). Is a drive letter assigned to that HDD in DM? If there
> wasn't, were you able to assign a drive letter to it? Does it show the
> correct disk capacity and the correct partitioning information re that
> drive.
>
> What do you mean when you say "I will kill the partition if necessary to
> get my other HD back." What partition? Are you referring to
> multi-partitions on that secondary HDD? What "other HD" are you talking
> about? Are you referring to your boot HDD - the new HDD? But that's
> working just fine, isn't it? Or am I completely misunderstanding your
> problem?
>
> Anyway...
>
> You're sure you've properly connected/configured (jumpered) your HDDs?
> They're securely connected and you've no reason to believe there might be
> a problem with their data (ribbon) cable(s)?
> Anna


"Kinglyam" <Kinglyam@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:D84D5473-E5DA-4821-8870-C0B8B1BAB96B@microsoft.com...
> Gerry: No joy with TweakUi. It has a red question mark beside the
> C:Drive.
>
> RalfG: No luck there, either. It's not that I can see the drive but can't
> access it. The drive letter doesn't even show up anywhere but in the Disk
> Management program.
>
> Anna: I'm sure the HD is physically ok, as are the cables. Like I said, I
> accessed the drive using data recovery software and copied all the files
> over, so there is a good data connection and no hardware issues. SMART
> and Disk Management both say the drive is A-ok. I am pretty sure the
> jumpers are set correctly, because when I boot up, the motherboard BIOS
> recognizes the old disk as a slave. I have experimented with changing the
> jumpers to make the old disk the master, and the BIOS did recognize it as
> the master, but it wouldn't boot from that disk.
>
> When I loaded Windows onto my new computer with my new HD as the boot
> disk, it asked me if I wanted to load onto the unpartitioned new disk, or
> the already-partitioned old disk. I loaded it onto the new disk. When it
> was done, my DVD-RAM was assigned drive D:, and my new HD/boot drive was
> assigned E: I currently have no C: drive.
>
> When I say I will kill the partition, I mean I will use Disk Management to
> delete the partition on the old HD that does not show up in Windows
> Explorer. Then I will use it to (hopefully) repartition the drive, under
> the theory that the problem is with the partition.
>
> However, I just looked more closely at Disk Management. While it sees the
> partition, I noticed that it does not, in fact, have a drive letter
> assigned to the partition. I can do nothing but delete the partition from
> there. That makes me wonder if I can even repartition it after I delete
> the existing one.


Kinglyam:
Well, since you've been able to copy over all the files you wanted or needed
from that 120 GB HDD, I assume you have no further need of that disk for
purposes of accessing any more data from it. Should that be so, why don't
you simply go ahead and delete the partition(s) on that drive and be done
with it?

Then, I would strongly suggest that you uninstall the 120 GB HDD from your
system and make a fresh install of the XP OS onto your new HDD. Before you
undertake that fresh install of the OS, ensure that your new HDD is the only
storage device connected to the system. It's OK to have any optical drives
connected at that time.

By doing this your new HDD - the boot drive - will be assigned a drive
letter of C: - as it should. I assume what I'm suggesting will not be a
problem for you depending, of course, on the data already on that new HDD.
As I'm sure you know a fresh install of the OS will wipe out all data on the
disk. It is *always* best to have your boot drive be designated with a drive
letter of C:.

Following the successful installation of the OS, you can reconnect your 120
GB Hitachi HDD and use it as a secondary HDD. We're assuming, as you've led
us to believe, that this disk is non-defective & potentially functional.

As far as I can tell, based on the info you're already provided, I believe
what I'm suggesting is the most sensible course of action for you to take at
this point.
Anna
 
Slave disk missing

I presently have exactly the same issue.

Took my old IDE HDD out of the old computer - works fine in the old computer. Put it on as a slave drive in my new system running XP and it doesn't show up in explorer or my computer, so I can't seem to use for storage.

It does however show up in device manager as functioning correctly and shows up in the start-up protocol's etc.

There is nothing wrong with connection cables or the HDD itself. The old HDD has two partitions on it.

When I have installed a slave under Windows 2000, it recognised them fine and assigned a drive letter.
Any known fixes out there?

EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
Re: Slave disk missing

It is most likely a ownership/permissions issue due to the drive being swapped to the new system.
Do a google for taking ownership of a drive and you will find several references to help you.
--
Dave Vair
CNE, CNA, MCP, A+, N+

<pete mcget> wrote in message news:2007811194026petemcget@hotmail.com...
>I presently have exactly the same issue.
>
> Took my old IDE HDD out of the old computer - works fine in the old computer. Put it on as a
> slave drive in my new system running XP and it doesn't show up in explorer or my computer, so I
> can't seem to use for storage.
>
> It does however show up in device manager as functioning correctly and shows up in the start-up
> protocol's etc.
>
> There is nothing wrong with connection cables or the HDD itself. The old HDD has two partitions
> on it.
>
> When I have installed a slave under Windows 2000, it recognised them fine and assigned a drive
> letter.
> Any known fixes out there?
>
> EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
> http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
Re: Slave disk missing

Pete

Is it recognised in the BIOS and Disk Management?

Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk
Management. Check the BIOS before Disk Management.


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
pete mcget wrote:
> I presently have exactly the same issue.
>
> Took my old IDE HDD out of the old computer - works fine in the old
> computer. Put it on as a slave drive in my new system running XP and
> it doesn't show up in explorer or my computer, so I can't seem to use
> for storage.
>
> It does however show up in device manager as functioning correctly
> and shows up in the start-up protocol's etc.
>
> There is nothing wrong with connection cables or the HDD itself. The
> old HDD has two partitions on it.
>
> When I have installed a slave under Windows 2000, it recognised them
> fine and assigned a drive letter.
> Any known fixes out there?
>
> EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice
> http://www.eggheadcafe.com
 
Re: Slave disk missing

<pete mcget> wrote in message news:2007811194026petemcget@hotmail.com...
>I presently have exactly the same issue.
>
> Took my old IDE HDD out of the old computer - works fine in the old computer. Put it on as a slave drive in my new system running
> XP and it doesn't show up in explorer or my computer, so I can't seem to use for storage.
>
> It does however show up in device manager as functioning correctly and shows up in the start-up protocol's etc.
>
> There is nothing wrong with connection cables or the HDD itself. The old HDD has two partitions on it.
>
> When I have installed a slave under Windows 2000, it recognised them fine and assigned a drive letter.
> Any known fixes out there?

If the old system had GoBack, and the new does not, you would need to unhook Goback from the drive.

The same could be said for other drive manager type software.
 
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